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Finally!

Well if they do metallics washes/contrasts, they'll be the only company doing it. So that'll work in their favour I think.

They certainly have my interest if they are.

Army Painter has metallic contrasts

I don't like em, but they're there

I honestly prefer GW's NMM Contrasts (Basilicanum, Nazdreg, Garaghak) in most situations where I used to do metallics

 Snrub wrote:
Well if they do metallics washes/contrasts, they'll be the only company doing it. So that'll work in their favour I think.

They certainly have my interest if they are.

With the matte finish mentioned in the video, I wouldn't expect any metallics in the Quick Gen line, nor would I expect them to be good at tinting metallics without seriously cutting down on their shine.

EDIT: From AK Interactive's Facebook page:

79 vibrant colors + 1 special medium
6 metallic shades
9 historical military tones

I'm not sure how the metallics will work unless they're using two different mediums

lord_blackfang wrote:Army Painter has metallic contrasts

I don't like em, but they're there

I honestly prefer GW's NMM Contrasts (Basilicanum, Nazdreg, Garaghak) in most situations where I used to do metallics

Ah I didn't know AP were doing them. I don't pay a lot of attention to AP though, so not surprised I missed them.
What about those Contrasts you listed makes them suitable for NMM/stand in "metallics" over other Contrasts? I don't have any of those particular ones, and I've not seen used as such before.

Ghaz wrote:With the matte finish mentioned in the video, I wouldn't expect any metallics in the Quick Gen line, nor would I expect them to be good at tinting metallics without seriously cutting down on their shine.

I'm not sure how the metallics will work unless they're using two different mediums

I couldn't watch that vid as I was on my phone, but the "thumbnail" (I dunno what you'd call it. Pre-play static image? There's a gun toting orc, a dwarf and three bottles of paint.) has a goldy looking bottle with "metallic" on it, so I assumed they were doing metallic washes of some sort.
I'm not sure how they'd be doing it either, as I've never encountered a metallic paint that could be thinned down to wash consistency and still hold its poop in a group and not just become a watery mess. About the closest I've ever come was with Scale75's Decayed Metal.

I've only tried one of the AP metallics so far (the silver that comes in the Speedpaint II Starter box) and it's really just a very thin metallic silver. It's fine for quickly and easily painting detailed metal areas, but still needs a wash to actually have any shading.

If this can do better than that, I'll be very interested.

This just came up on my youtube feed - full range review - the metallics look good might pick up a few to experiment with.

I really like the marking on the label with how intense the contrast effect is. I have some from almost every line (if not them all) and not having to do a bunch of test applications for this is a pretty nice QOL.

I also find it interesting that AK is the only company with 2 contrast style paint lines as they've had quickshade for like 2 years now and I use several of them quite a bit.

Yeah, the metallics look considerably better than the AP version. And the black actually looks black, something neither AP or Vallejo seem to have managed.

Do metallic contrasts go over a light base like the regular ones?

Thanks for the video link

May just be my screen but seems to be about 20% redundancy in the colours. But the regular AK range is pretty bloated as well.

Annoyingly the range of metallics is a bit stingy on the silvers. They look excellent, so I wish there werw more tones here.

Ooooooh! I really like the AK range and just this moment thinking of finally painting my BSF models. That's the chaos chaps sorted!

 insaniak wrote:
Yeah, the metallics look considerably better than the AP version. And the black actually looks black, something neither AP or Vallejo seem to have managed.

Vallejo's Hospitallier Black looks pretty good in Juan Hidalgo's review of the Xpress paints

Ah... didn't realise they had multiple blacks. My starter set came with Black Lotus, which has a very blue tint to it.

 insaniak wrote:
Ah... didn't realise they had multiple blacks. My starter set came with Black Lotus, which has a very blue tint to it.

No problem. It was a part of Wave 2 that came out about a year after the initial release. Juan used it to fix some colors (the aforementioned black), add some colors he really wanted to be in the first wave (a bone color and a warm white), some colors aimed at WWII to Modern wargamers, and a large portion of the 'Intense' colors are aimed at Space Marine players.

Michigan Toy Soldier Co. has the AK Interactive QUICK GEN paints up for pre-order. They have an MSRP of $5.49 (which may or may not be affected by tariffs). Painted samples of each paint is provided.

That sounds like a lot for a dropper bottle

Hope it's tariffs and it costs normal in the EU

That's pretty much the cost of one bottle of 3rd gen acrylic in the US so not unexpected.

Another review of the paints

Well, that was bizarrely sloppy work and I didn't get much feel for how the paints behave. Drying time is the big question.

Gold looks marvelous.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
That sounds like a lot for a dropper bottle

Hope it's tariffs and it costs normal in the EU

PK PRO have them listed at €2.60 discounted from €2.95 which is 20 cent more than the RRP on 3rd Gen

https://taleofpainters.com/2025/06/tutorial-how-to-paint-wood-elves-glade-guard/

Stahly already has the paints and noted that his review will be up soon.

RRP 2,95€ straight from AK

236,00€ for the 80 count mega set, which is 0 discount but I guess you get the box and trays

295,00€ for the 80 quickpaints + 20 regular paints, 0 discount but you get 3 free brushes

No discount on the smaller 3-6 bottle bundles either

Special brush just for "contrast" paint
https://ak-interactive.com/product/ak-quick-gen-special-brush/

Conclusion: buy a la carte

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Conclusion: buy a la carte

Pretty much, which for me? Actually a good thing... I'll get a couple of colors and see how it works, then I'll see if I want to invest more

I see AK is taking notes on GW's method of bundle deals.

 Snrub wrote:
I see AK is taking notes on GW's method of bundle deals.

No joke xDDD. The only free thing inside is the brushes.

They have assembled a whole lote of sets though, from the above sets, to two other (starter set of 8+medium+brush and 36 paints set), plus an "all the metals" set and a whole bunch of 3-4 color boxes, a lot of them cheeky "paint space marines" boxes.

I've ordered the 8 paint set and a couple of singles to review them, let's see how they are.

If it comes with one of AK's metal briefcases, 0% "discount" is actually quite a good deal if you're planning to buy most or all of the paints. Those AK cases are bloody awesome.

I'm waiting for my regular paint place here in the states to thrown them up for pre-order so I don't have to buy them from the people with a history of credit card fraud.

Stahly's review of the new Quick Gen paints coming this Friday, the 20th